The expression "secured EEPROM memory" is understood to mean any memory to which write access is restricted to protect its contents. The protection may be either a software protection or a hardware protection. This type of EEPROM is protected especially against the electrical erasure of its cells.
One technique that has been devised by certain fraudulent individuals to circumvent protection against electrical erasure includes erasure by ultraviolet (UV) radiation although these memories, in theory, are protected by their packages against such erasure. These fraudulent individuals open the package of the memory to access its memory array and modify the state of the cells therein by exposing them to ultraviolet radiation. This fraudulent erasure does not necessarily stop the performance of the application in which the memory is used, and the fraud is therefore not necessarily detected.